Dungeons & Dragons and Tarzan swing into the spotlight for IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing has announced a new Dungeons & Dragons miniseries and a collection celebrating the Tarzan comic strips of Russ Manning. First to arrive is the five-issue Dungeons & Dragons: Cutter written by R.A. and Geno Salvatore with art by David Baldeon and covers by Steve Ellis. The official synopsis for the tale which revolves around a legendary sword reads:

When the battle-hardened Drow renegade Tos’un must choose an heir to his legacy, his half-Drow son Tierflin and daughter Doum’weille become locked in vicious competition. But what will the prize, the bloodthirsty sword Khazid’hea, have to say on the matter?

“These comic series have become a wonderful tool for me to fill in the blanks and to crystallize my thoughts on the Legend of Drizzt novels going forward,” explains R.A. Salvatore. “The fallout from the twisting events in Neverwinter Tales not only came into play in the last couple of Drizzt books, but allowed me a strong plot line for an upcoming novel I’ve yet to pen. The same is true for Cutter – I see it already. So while these comic stories are self-contained, they open up to the wider stories going forward.”

Dungeons & Dragons: Cutter arrives in stores on April 17, 2013.

In May, the King of the Jungle created by Edgar Rice Burroughs gets the Library of America Comics treatment with a four-volume series titled Tarzan: The Complete Russ Manning Newspaper Strips. Volumes 1 to 3 will cover all of Manning’s daily black & white and full-colour Sunday strips from 1967 to 1974 while Volume 4 carries on to 1979 featuring the remaining Sunday strips.

“The addition of Tarzan to the Library of American Comics amplifies even further that the imprint is the premier archival home for comic strip reprints and collections,” says IDW’s President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Goldstein. “Russ Manning’s Tarzan run is one of the real highlights of the modern age of adventure strips and we are extremely excited to be the home of its long-anticipated return to print.” A number of future comics greats assisted Manning in telling the adventures of Viscount Greystoke including Dave Stevens, William Stout, and Mike Royer. “Russ Manning was a natural storyteller,” writes William Stout in his introduction of Tarzan: The Complete Russ Manning Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1: 1967 – 1969. “He may also be one of the most underrated writers in comics. His beautiful art is so captivating that it’s easy to understand how it might overshadow his scripts. He was as adept with telling Tarzan tales in contemporary Africa as he was setting Ape Man stories in dinosaur-infested Pal-ul-don.”